Gaia's Secret (17 page)

“There’s one for each of us.” Cicero grabbed
the reigns of the black horse he called Nova.

My heart lifted at the prospect of riding
horseback. Something familiar, something I could grasp onto—a
remnant from my life on Earth. It lessened my feeling of
displacement in this strange place.

Cicero led his horse out of the stable,
followed by his wife. Sonya had grabbed the reigns of an elegant
white one she called Orion. Alex handed me reigns belonging to a
beautiful chocolate brown horse with a rich ivory mane and a single
patch of white fur along the breadth of his nose.

“Daria, meet Calyx.”

Calyx flicked his tail and fixed his glossy
black eyes on me. There was an intelligence in his gaze, much more
intelligent than the average horse. Like he was appraising me to
see what kind of person I was. Maybe this was what Thad had been
referring to—why my dad only rode Gaian horses. But so help me, if
Calyx started talking, I would walk.

“Hello, there.” I rubbed my hand along the
length of his nose, the fur velvety beneath my fingertips. He
whinnied, rubbing his wet nose into my neck and I chuckled. Good,
he didn’t talk. I had the distinct impression that we were going to
get along just fine.

Alex fastened his pack to the saddle of a
black stallion he called Parsec. Relieved, I slipped out of my
heavy pack, and strapped it to Calyx. “Thanks for that,” I
whispered in his ear.

His ear flickered as his tail whipped through
the air again. It really did seem like he could understand me. Once
my bag was secured, I hooked my foot through the stirrup and leapt
into the saddle.

Alex was watching me. “Still riding, I see.”
He smiled. I couldn’t remember seeing him smile like that. Not even
when we were younger.

“Of course.” I stroked Calyx’s mane, trying
to ignore Alex’s charm this morning. “I suppose your life of luxury
and self-importance doesn’t give you much time for this sort of
leisure.”

“Lucky for me this supposed life of luxury I
lead requires I ride.” He raised a brow. “I might even be better
than you now.”

I grinned. “This I have to see.”

I’d always been a better rider than Alex.
Although if I thought about it, “better” might be the wrong word.
Reckless was more accurate.

Just as he lifted his foot to the stirrup,
Parsec sidestepped. Alex’s foot plummeted to the ground, landing
with a squish into something green and slimy. Manure.

“Better?” I laughed. “Well, at least I know
your reputation has nothing to do with riding.”

Alex glared at me, but not without a grin. I
laughed even harder. Shaking his head, he scraped his boot clean
and fluidly hopped into the saddle like he’d done it a thousand
times.

The two of us exited the barn to where Cicero
and Sonya were scrutinizing the land ahead. Just beyond the blanket
of fog, I could make out a wall of shadow. It looked like a forest.
A dense, tall forest. I knew it must be the Kirkwoods.

Cicero glanced over his shoulder. “You two
ready?”

Alex responded with an affirmative while I
focused on keeping a straight face. I kept thinking about the
manure.

“Run hard, straight for the woods. We can’t
be followed. The fog should hide us till we reach the trees, and
we’ll reconvene once we’re under the cover of the forest.
Daria?”

I fought back my smile and tried to sound as
serious as Cicero did. “Yes?”

“Remember what you agreed to.”

I nodded. What he meant was that he expected
me not to run off. And I would keep that promise, as long as they
kept theirs.

O
nce we reached the
forest, Cicero didn’t waste time. We stopped just long enough for
Cicero to say it was all right to talk, but don’t yell, and we were
safe, but keep our weapons ready. And never, under any
circumstances, was I allowed to go off on my own. Not even when I
went to the bathroom.

The fog followed us into the forest,
blanketing the air with a thin veil of haze. The trees looked like
dark veins, stretching and bending, angling up from the ground into
a grey abyss.

I had no idea where we were or what direction
we were headed. Everything looked the same; grey, dark, cloudy.
Every so often I heard a sound like a crow’s call. It was always
off in the distance, echoing endlessly in the mist, and was the
only sign of life aside of ourselves. For the most part nature was
quiet, letting us pass through her uninhibited.

Calyx proved to be an incredible creature.
His temperament was remarkable; he didn’t startle, and didn’t
require much—if any—guidance. Before I even reached to pull him in
a certain direction, he would walk that way. I wondered where
Master Durus had found the horses and how they’d been trained. Out
of all the horses I’d been exposed to, none were so controlled and
intuitive. If this was what my dad was used to, no wonder he
couldn’t stand riding Cadence.

My thoughts drifted back to Thad and his
words repeated again.
“Makes you wonder what else they’re not
telling you
.”

Shoving my fingers into my pocket, I pulled
out the little rook Thad gave me.

A tower with impenetrable walls. For all its
strength in battle, what was it hiding inside? What was it fighting
to protect? To Thad it was the most important piece. To me, it just
sacrificed itself for the king like all the other pieces. But Thad
had employed this little rook again and again, using it to
dismantle every strategy I didn’t have.

The wind stirred. Shadows moved as the mist
glittered in sunlight. Wasn’t that what Thad had warned? That the
Black Bard would come as a shadow? Was it possible he was real and
following us right now?

“What are you worried about?” Alex gazed
sidelong at me.

He and Parsec walked beside me, and I hadn’t
even heard them approach. “Nothing.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Parsec, I don’t
believe her.” He patted his stallion’s mane. “See how she’s playing
with her hair? She always does that when she’s nervous.”

Parsec and Calyx both whinnied as I dropped
my fingers from my hair.

I glared at the perfidious pair. “Just
something Thad said, before we left. About a Black Bard.”

He sighed with understanding. “I might advise
you
not
to listen to dear Thaddeus. He is a professional
jokester and gets some sort of sick pleasure from distressing
others.”

He had a point there. “Well? Is it true?”

Alex stared ahead, his face fixed in
concentration. “It depends on who you ask. I would say no. People
have a habit of blaming any unusual or unexplainable event on the
Black Bard, but no one has ever seen him. I think he’s more myth
than anything. Don’t waste your time worrying.”

A dark shadow sliced through the mist, right
over my head, and cawed so loudly I jumped. Stupid birds.

“Daria, seriously.” Alex smiled. “There’s
nothing to worry about. If he really exists and tries to attack,
we’ll hand you right over and be done with it.”

“Yeah, you’d like that, wouldn’t you,” I
said.

He chuckled then, the sound of his laughter
making my heart flutter. I hadn’t heard his laughter in years, but
the sound had changed. It was deeper and richer and seemed to pulse
through me.

“What’s that in your hand?” He nodded towards
my rook.

I’d forgotten I was holding it. “Oh. Thad
gave it to me before we left. Thought I might practice my strategy
so I don’t have to talk to you.”

Alex’s expression grew distant as he stared
at the rook in my hand. Without another word, he slowed Parsec and
walked behind me. I suddenly wished I’d kept my mouth shut.

Darkness began to consume our clouded, narrow
trail, and Cicero halted. He jumped down from Nova and led her
towards the overhang of an enormous tree branch. “This looks
good.”

I hopped down from Calyx, grateful Alex moved
me to the bed last night. Well, a little grateful.

“I’ll help you.” Alex stood at my side.

“I don’t need your—” he took my pack off the
saddle “—help,” I finished quietly.

“I didn’t ask if you needed it.”

“Daria,” Sonya called over to me. “Grab
Parsec, will you, dear? There’s a stream nearby and I’d like to get
them some water while we fill our canteens.”

Alex held the reins out for me, his
expression hard. “There’s no need to punish Parsec because you’re
mad at me.”

“Mad? I’d have to care about you to be
mad…”

Alex dropped the reins and walked away before
I could finish my sentence, leaving me with both Calyx and Parsec.
I couldn’t be sure, but it looked like the horses were glaring at
me.

I led Calyx and Parsec after Sonya, Orion,
and Nova. It wasn’t long before I heard the sound of bubbling
water. A few paces more and we reached a narrow stream trickling
through the trees. It was shallow enough to walk through, but wide
enough to ensure one got wet if they tried. The water was crystal
clear, glittering through beams of sunlight, bounding over and
around small rocks. The horses were already lapping it up.

Sonya knelt along the bank a little
downstream from me, filling her and Cicero’s canteens. I grabbed
mine and Alex’s.

Alex. He brought out the worst in me. Mad? I
wasn’t mad at him. He was the bane of my existence. There was a
difference.

But I couldn’t let him go without water.

I dipped my hands in the stream, the water
icy cold against my skin. I filled his canteen first to make sure I
didn’t conveniently forget, and then filled mine. After some of the
water went in, I lifted the canteen to my lips. The water was so
refreshing and revitalizing that I gulped down the rest. I dipped
it back in the river to fill for our journey.

A gust of wind whispered past my ears. With
it came voices, layers of hushed voices, all whispering at
once.

I glanced around, but all I could see were
trees. Nothing but trees.

Thinking I imagined it, I went back to my
canteen. The whispers sounded again. I looked back towards Sonya.
She was focused on the stream, filling the canteens. Feeling my
gaze, she glanced up at me and smiled, then returned to her
task.

I must’ve been hearing things. I hurried to
fill the canteens and secured the caps.

Just as I stood, a bright red leaf caught my
attention. It fell from the sky, floating back and forth through
the air. It looked strangely out of place amidst the green of the
trees. Nothing was red here, except for this leaf.

It continued to fall, gracefully sliding
through the air until it landed in front of me, right on the water.
But rather than glide downstream with the current, it just stayed
there, floating. I watched the leaf as it spun in place, its deep
red edges curled upwards as if reaching for me. Then it moved.
Upstream.

It glided across the surface of the water,
away from me, away from Sonya. Sonya was still fixed on her task,
now tending to the horses, and the leaf was moving away. Farther
and farther it went.

Careful and quiet, I set down my canteen and
followed after it.

The leaf grazed the surface, threads of water
streaming behind. It glided with purpose, as if being pulled
forward by an invisible string. Sonya was soon out of view and the
leaf stopped moving.

It floated in place as before, fighting
against the current with little effort. I crouched and picked it
up, and something glittered in the water right beneath it.

I bent forward to get a closer look. Nestled
in the stream, amidst the bed of rocks, was a strip of silver. A
dagger. I dipped my hand into the cold water, folded my fingers
around the hilt and retrieved it.

The blade was remarkably light, and was very
old and dulled with strange symbols etched along its length. The
same kinds of symbols I’d seen on the amulet the Del Contes used to
travel to my home back in Fresno. The hilt was wrapped in a coil of
copper wire with a sort of round medallion at the end, split into
four engraved quadrants. But there was something strange about the
dagger, like it held a power deep within. And even though I’d
pulled it from the cool stream, it felt warm in my hands.

It was then I realized I wasn’t alone.

The wind rustled again, with more strength
this time.

I peered over my shoulder. There was a
shadow, a few yards away. The ground beneath it swirled as the
shadow thickened into a dark mist and began floating towards
me.

“Daria?” I heard Sonya call from up
ahead.

A sharp gust of wind snatched the leaf from
my hands, taking it to the canopy so that it was lost in the green
sea above. When I looked back behind me, the mist and shadow had
vanished, and the ground beneath it was still.

Whatever it was had gone.

“Coming!” I shoved the dagger beneath my
cloak and through my belt.

Taking one last glance at the place the
shadow had been, I ran back to Sonya and our horses. I didn’t
mention what I’d seen, or what I’d found. I was still trying to
make sense of it myself. And besides, I still wasn’t sure I should
trust her. Not yet.

The sun had hidden itself by the time we
reached our camp: the tree branch

We were greeted by the sound of metal
clanking upon metal. Cicero and Alex were fighting with swords. My
eyes had a difficult time following their movements as they darted
around each other, feinting this way, moving that. Metal jarred,
arms were almost dislocated, and I’d never seen such smiles.

“Nice to see you haven’t wasted your time
either.” Sonya left Orion and Nova beneath another large
branch.

I left Calyx and Parsec beside them.

“Your son is pretty good.” Cicero laughed as
he spun around just in time to block Alex’s thrust. Cicero always
referred to Alex as Sonya’s son, unless Alex did something
exceptional.